


Rest in Pieces

by yuffiehighwind



Series: Rest in Pieces [2]
Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-01
Updated: 2010-11-01
Packaged: 2017-11-18 18:44:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/564204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuffiehighwind/pseuds/yuffiehighwind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Persephone, the Goddess of the Underworld, offers Eris a second chance. As a human.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rest in Pieces

The stream trickled past, its source somewhere up the cliff face. No cascading waterfall, no tumultuous rapids. This was not a proper magic river. The water came down reluctantly, taking its sweet time. The war goddess shot her guide a disdainful look. _Unimpressive._

She would have stepped over it, maybe getting a sandal slightly damp, if she still had feet. Nothing remained of Eris but the intangible shade she once was, before matter coalesced, before the gods transformed into beings of flesh. Just as dying humans returned to dust, beings like Eris returned to shadow. She didn't like that, not one bit, so Persephone gave her the choice she gave everyone.

The nature goddess was Queen of the Underworld, now, of death and rebirth, darkness and sunlight. She didn't appear personally to every soul, leaving that up to Charon the Ferryman, but this was her sister before her, stripped from her physical form. Strange, really, how the war above had turned out, but Persephone didn't ask how it was possible her ancient sister hovered by the banks of the Lethe, faced with _this_ choice, of all things.

"You know what this is, don't you, sister?" the Queen asked, referring to more than just the underwhelming stream.

A skeptical Eris replied, "The Styx is endless! You seriously want me to believe this _puddle_ is one of the Five?"

Persephone allowed herself a small smile.

"This is the Lethe, the river of forgetfulness. I give you the choice, sister, to be reincarnated, if you wish, but there is one requirement. You must drink this water and remember nothing."

Eris' rage stirred the air around her. Persephone felt it but didn't let her serene smile falter. This was hard, more difficult for her than Eris would ever know. Eris would be the first god to do so, if she chose a second life. The results were unpredictable, and to demand a goddess drink from the Lethe was unconscionable. The rules were rules, though, not to mention, if Eris were made mortal, what madness could befall a human with a god's millennia of memories? It would be a cruel torment.

Eris stalled for time, inwardly wracked with grief and fear. She would have sobbed if she still had eyes, and was glad she hadn't any, because she could never let Persephone see her weep. She thanked Nyx she remembered the loophole.

"You've got to be kidding me, Persey. I know about Mnemosyne's pool. _Humans_ know about it. You must take me there immediately. It will allow me to retain my memories beyond death."

Persephone shook her head. "It is a myth concocted by frightened mortals, Eris. The Underworld only contains the five rivers. Besides, Mnemosyne has no power here."

"She’s the goddess of memory. She can manipulate minds!"

"She isn't here and there is no water of memory, only water of forgetting. You _must_ drink before the next step."

Persephone gazed sternly at the spot Eris' eyes would be. She couldn't know for sure, but she suspected the war goddess was glaring back.

"You haven't even told me what that _is_ , and you expect me to forfeit my identity?"

"You can be reincarnated, Eris." Persephone said for the second time, trying to keep the impatience out of her tone. "You can live on, have a second chance at life."

"I will retain my power, will I not?" Eris asked hopefully.

The Queen sighed. "I cannot do that. I do not know how. This is the first time in our history that this has happened. You are the first of us to perish."

_That surely didn't mean…It couldn't mean…No, no, that wasn't right. That wasn't fair!_

"A _human?!_ You expect me to allow myself to be made _human?!"_

"It is that or oblivion, sister."

"Losing my memories is my oblivion!"

Persephone shook her head. Nature goddess first, death god second, her heart ached at the thought of her sister's total extinction. She softened her voice, trying to be comforting. A soul somehow survived its remolding.

"You will still be you."

"But I won't know that, will I?" Eris countered.

 _None of the war gods ever listened to reason,_ Persephone thought.

"Drink," she commanded.

"No, I cannot."

"I am trying to save your _life_ , Eris."

Eris wondered why Persephone couldn’t understand. The nature goddess had never been faced with such an ultimatum. She had suffered a cold marriage to Hades, but that was nothing remotely similar to this.

"I am trying to save my very existence!" Eris shouted, losing composure, pain seeping into her voice.

Persephone tried to think of how to persuade her. If Eris' feared being forgotten, perhaps some assurance would help. She had a feeling humans would never forget the gods entirely.

"They will talk about you. They will compose songs and write plays. You will survive in stories. You may be thought a myth, but you will last through the ages, and one day, you will see your true name in a book and you will feel whole again."

"That is not enough!" Eris cried.

"It is all I can give you!” Persephone insisted. “You try my patience! Take the water!"

Darkness suddenly fell, and the grass by the stream faded from green to brown, the flowers around Persephone's feet withering, though the Lethe continued to trickle past. Hades, Lord of the Underworld, approached the two goddesses.

"What is the commotion?" he quietly asked, his voice deep, with a slight echo.

"Your niece will not drink of the Lethe," Persephone replied, head bowed.

"Hades, my Lord, you must allow me to drink of Mnemosyne's fountain!" Eris pleaded.

"She cannot," Persephone interjected. She stepped closer to Hades, touching his arm. "Husband, you do not understand. Her mind will burn up!"

Hades looked puzzled. A goddess dying was a sobering thought enough without contemplating what effect reincarnation could have on such a being. "How can you be sure?"

"Five thousand years in a human brain? Are you serious?"

"Then she will merely die again and choose the Lethe to erase the pain." _Simple solution,_ he thought. _Trial and error._

"A human brain cannot even function with that much memory," Persephone protested.

Hades shrugged. "Shouldn't that be up to Mnemosyne?"

Eris gasped. So Persephone _had_ lied, after all.

"She meddles in minds, I command souls,” Persephone replied. “The dead are our responsibility, not hers.”

Hades bent down and peered into the clear stream, then looked up at Eris' shade. He turned to his wife and said the first smart thing all day, in Eris' opinion.

"Have you even asked her?"

\--

Eris hovered before the memory goddess, who gave the shade an appraising look.

"So you wish to retain your memories in the next life?"

"I cannot live without the knowledge of what I am. I would rather cease to exist."

Mnemosyne paused and thought. Eris thought she saw the goddess smirk. 

"You don't understand how the human mind works, do you?"

"I do not understand why this decision is not my own," Eris replied.

"A human thinks very differently from one of you war gods. From any god," Mnemosyne explained. "That much memory, which you access so easily every moment, file with no trouble, calling up moments like pictures? A human memory doesn't function that way, not at all. And a _war_ god? Even the most evil human has a shred of compassion, and that much hatred can't be held in such a fragile heart. They think of survival, then pleasure, then more often than not, they think of love, and you war gods have no love in you."

Eris fleetingly thought of Deimos. She pictured his features softened, sitting with him in fresh grass feeling the wind. They had begun doing this more often, peacefully watching humans and struggling to understand them as they went about their daily lives. His brother Phobos came with them sometimes, and the three set out to explore every unfamiliar experience. They visited Parnassus, listened to music, attended Dionysus’ parties, and lurked in the shadows of mundane places. Typically, they grew bored and played cruel tricks on mortals instead, but in the process, began to relate to each other as people and, this was the strangest part, _talked_ to each other.

Mnemosyne characterized the gods of the House of War as mindless vengeful specters, but she had misjudged at least three.

"Give me a drop. Just a drop, diluted in the waters of the Lethe. Let me retain some sense of self, please, I beseech you!"

Mnemosyne considered this, and with a pained look, reluctantly replied, "Yes. Yes, I can do that. But just one drop."

Eris would have danced with joy, another new activity she surprisingly found pleasure in, and perhaps now she could, in her new body. She could rejoice she had been given the chance to retain her identity despite the obstacles set by such villainous death gods!

Persephone and Hades approached, a cup of the Lethe's water in the goddess' hands. Mnemosyne waved her palm over the dark pool, and placed her hand, palm-down, over the cup. A single drop fell from her hand into the clear water, turning it an ominous black.

"Drink," Hades commanded, and the shade of Eris reached out a spectral hand to take the cup. Hades touched her other hand, and the three gods could see her more clearly now.

She was petite, but homely. Her long black hair was bushy and tangled, twigs, leaves and bits of dried blood and gore in it like the flowers Persephone weaved into her own. She wore a man’s black tunic and leather boots underneath warriors’ armor, the battered breastplate spattered with her own blood. A jagged black scar circled her neck.

Eris took the cup and drank thirstily, licking the drops around her lips, praying to Nyx she didn't miss the one that truly mattered.

Eris always prayed to Nyx, the goddess of night, because even gods had Creators, had mothers, and this one deserved all a young war goddess' thanks and gratitude.

"I am ready," Eris said, grinning confidently.

Hades took Persephone's hand, and they pointed at Eris, whose form started to lose substance again. She watched as her hands vanished, then her arms, her anxiety growing as she became intangible again. She felt memories slipping. What was she doing here? Why was she in the Underworld? Had she died? How was that possible? Wasn't she immortal?

She tried to hold onto one thought, one image, of Deimos smiling at her, a hint of love in his look, but even that slipped, and she gazed up at Mnemosyne, fearful and confused.

The memory goddess had a sympathetic expression lacking in the death gods' features. They were emotionless as they worked their spell, stoic as statues, but in Eris' last moments of consciousness, she saw Mnemosyne holding her gaze with a mix of worry, hope, and guilt. 


End file.
